If you are a new investor to the HY market you can take advantage of the biggest monthly loss since November 2008.  In addition, yields to maturity (YTM = cash interest payments + any gain/loss from holding the bond to maturity) relative to treasuries have risen to levels not seen since the summer of 2009.  For example, the YTM’s on a variety of representative high yield indices are above 8% versus around 2% for ‘risk free’ 10-year U.S. Treasury bonds and approximately 4.25% for investment grade bonds.  The last time potential returns relative to treasury bonds were this good was in the summer of 2009, and investors who were brave enough to commit capital at that time were rewarded with 15% – 20% annual returns.

The current high yield opportunity will most likely not lead to double digit returns.  However, as in 2009, the rush to reduce risk by institutional investors combined with declining liquidity has created an attractive return potential relative to the actual fundamental risk in the HY market.
U.S. corporate fundamentals have improved dramatically since 2008.  For example, corporations have lowered debt and dramatically improved liquidity.  Many U.S. companies have enormous cash balances that have been held in reserve due to economic uncertainties.  In addition, unlike the economy overall, corporate net income has grown steadily since the recession low and is making new all-time highs.

If you have been leery of the U.S. stock market and are underwhelmed by the returns on CDs or other low-risk fixed income securities, you might consider the opportunity in U.S. high yield bonds.  There are many HY mutual funds available to individual investors that provide broad exposure to the sector.  Based on fundamentals, I think the HY market is cheap relative to the actual risk of default and high-single digit returns available in the sector today appear attractive relative to other fixed income alternatives.

A Rush Out of ‘Junk’

The answer is nobody really knows.  However, there are two main reasons why I’m not selling my shares.  First, this isn’t a surprise.  Over the past seven years, since Mr. Jobs was first diagnosed with a rare form of pancreatic cancer and underwent a liver transplant, he has taken three leaves of absence for medical reasons, most recently beginning last January.  During these periods Chief Operating Officer, Tim Cook, has managed day-to-day operations.   Based on the decline of his physical appearance I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that Mr. Job’s role in Apple’s daily operations limited throughout that period.

Second, the past seven years have been an incredibly successful period for Apple’s business and stock price.  Apple’s stock has been a ten bagger since 2004 and net income is up an even greater percentage.   Mr. Cook was managing Apple during much of this period – he had to have played an important role in that success!

It is clear Steve Jobs has been a huge inspiration and a driving force behind Apple’s phenomenal success, and that can’t be replaced.  However, I’d bet his core philosophies and vision is so ingrained in the Apple culture that in his absence the company will maintain and continue it’s phenomenal record of success.

It is not only the size and volatility of recent market swings that points to hedge fund managers as the volatility culprits.  In Saturday’s Weekend WSJ there was a very interesting article titled: Too Flustered to Trade: A Portrait of the Angry Investor written by Jason Zweig.  Mr. Zweig details online polling data collected by a team of psychologists from Decision Research between August 9 and 15.  The polling data suggest that small investors are angry, worried, and during the recent market turmoil they have made few if any changes to their portfolios.  It hasn’t been small investors who’ve sent share prices south and the polling data also suggest they won’t be starting any new wave of selling.   Another group of investors who have been inactive recently are long only institutional managers.   Speaking from experience, traditional equity portfolio managers rarely see much value in making portfolio changes during periods of such drastic volatility.  It’s the hedgies who have been piling in and out of stocks –mostly into S&P 500 shorts.  It’s the hedgies who have driven stocks down to valuation levels similar to March 2009.  They may be right about slowing economic growth next year or European banking problems, but they are wrong to bail out of seaworthy stocks like Apple (COMP: AAPL) and Amazon (COMP: AMZN).  These two blue chip growth ships may have to endure some stormy business conditions but they have little risk of sinking.  When economic weather improves, they will be making new all-time highs and rewarding investors who have greater conviction than a scurrying rat.

Answer: Not much!

The market has already discounted the likelihood of today’s crummy economic conditions.  It’s possible that the Philly Economic Index, which was really bad, may lead stocks to new short term lows, but I’d bet against it.

Over the last week the market rallied 8%, which was an enormous move, thus stocks were very over-bought – the flip side of how over-sold they were on August 9^th.   Today’s action is working off the over-bought momentum that took the market up 8% in five days.  It is part of a normal bottoming process and not a new signal of economic collapse.

I was talking to my retirement age father the other day and he said something like, “This market is crazy, how can it be so volatile.”   A great question; I’m sure a lot of people are thinking.  Even professional money managers are confused.  According to a front page story in today’s WSJ, “Institutional clients are shell shocked.” Furthermore, according to chief market strategist, Rick Bensignor of Dahlman Rose & Co was quoted in the same article saying, “some institutional investors I know said they don’t want to play this game anymore.”

I told my Dad that I thought the market and public really got spooked by the debt ceiling talks, and that the stocks were discounting the possibility of even poorer economic growth, employment growth and consumer sentiment.  I also told him at times like these, I used to like to listen to guy named Dick McCabe, chief market strategist from Merrill Lynch.   Dick retired in 2005 but I’m pretty sure he would have said something like – to be continued…end Part 1

Part 2.
At times like this, I used to listen to a guy named Dick McCabe the chief market strategist from Merrill Lynch who retired in 2005.  I never met Dick in person but spoke to him on the phone many times.  He is the mildest mannered guy you’ll ever meet and is the ultimate student of the market.  Dick was always able to give objective context to market periods like this week compared to other volatile periods.

If Dick were still sitting at his desk today, I’m sure he would have come on Merrill’s squawk box (intercom system used by traders/brokers) after the close sometime this past week to say something like the following;  the market has been just experienced a 15% pullback, which is fairly dramatic but not that unusual.  For example, the market pulled back about the same percentage last spring and summer (April 23 – July 2) without an S&P 500 downgrade and in somewhat less dramatic fashion and then the market recovered nicely during the fall and early winter.  He would probably also say that intense volatility (400 point Dow moves) is fairly common at important market lows.  Extreme fluctuations are simply part of the process of washing out weak equity holders and at the same time shaking hedge funds and other institutional investors out of their market shorts (bets the market will go down).

He might also have said something about the CBOE Put/Call ratio, one of Dick’s favorite indicators.  The P/C ratio is the ratio of put volume (bearish bets) vs. call volume (bullish bets) traded on the Chicago Board of Options Exchange.  The P/C ratio is a great way to measure how many investors are bearish vs. bullish.  When the 10 day averaged reached 1.4, Dick would say that now was a great time to buy.   FYI, the 10 day average was 1.24 after Thursday’s close – not perfect but close to a very good buy signal.

Finally, he might wrap up by saying that he didn’t know if the economy was going to slide into recession or some other piece of bad news was going to pop up.  But, if you invested in stocks when the P/C ratio was as high (like it is right now)a year or two from now you would look back and be happy you had followed its signal.

The Chicago Tribune editorial writers are exactly right about the above quote.  However, they go on to explain how the economy is really quite a lot better than it looks and it is “misguided buyers/sellers” of stocks who are wrong.  I have an old partner who used to say, “That kind of advice and a quarter will buy you a cup of coffee.”   Meaning:  it isn’t worth squat.

What the Chicago Tribune doesn’t understand is – stocks discount the future.   And what the stock market has been saying over the past month is that while our political leaders were dithering over their Band-Aid plan, any small business plans for future hiring, investment or spending along with consumer optimism were swirling down the commode.

That’s the bad news the market is discounting.  The good news is our economy isn’t the only thing that affects the stocks in your portfolio like Apple and Johnson & Johnson.  In fact, from a fundamental standpoint our economy is only a part of what’s important.  Factors like: interest rates, global growth, cost controls and new products are more important and, so far at least, the events in our nation’s capitol haven’t screwed those things up.

Most important corporate net income growth has been great; the S&P 500 is on track for record earnings (albeit aided by mass layoffs).  From a P/E standpoint stocks are cheap, technically they are extremely oversold and I’d wager the market is within a few percentage points of its short term lows.

Lately fear has won out but, there is another old stock market truism I like and it goes “The best investments decision never feel good.”  I can attest that taking advantage of the recent decline to do some buying is a decision that would not feel good but like the saying goes it will very likely make you money in the long run.

Over the past month while Congress and the President wrangled over who could pass a more “politically” painful to the other’s base, U.S, Treasury Bonds rose in price.  Measured by Pimco’s 7yr – 15yr U.S. Treasury Bond Index, U.S. long term debt rose 5% and made a new high for the year.

What? You say,  how could that be?  Well it appears most investors believed Pimco’s imminent fixed income manager Bill Gross, who said, “the  greater risk to Treasury returns is inflation”, which is commonly produced by strong GDP growth.  U.S. and global stock market action,  poor economic data recently, and falling consumer sentiment are signaling zero risk of that happening.

So fear not if you have a good portion of your investments dedicated to U.S. Treasury Bonds.  However, the budget busting problems such as healthcare spending, Social Security and a congress full of ten cent millionaires aren’t going away.   However, while U.S. debt is safer than other investments today, when the day of U.S. fiscal reckoning finally arrives, U.S. Treasuries might not be the only place for all your marbles.

For seasoned investors, what I’m about to tell you is nothing new, but often comes a surprise for newer investors.  In general, cash cow properties will not be prettiest property on the block, but running a successful real estate portfolio comes down to at least covering the monthly and unforeseen expenses.  “Aligator” properties as we call them, or negative cash flow properties take from investors bank account every month, opposed to contributing to it.  Some investors, are fine with this due to future appreciation, or because they plan to use the property as a vacation home.  This is commonly seen in higher priced markets such as California or New York.

For the average investor, a portfolio that produces a consitant negative cash flow, could inhibit their desired lifestyle, or even cause forecloses.  This is a problem that is currently plauging our country after so many homeowners lost significant value in their real estate portoflios.  The average investor is not able to take a 20% or more decline on their real estate portfolio and continue to make high mortgage payments on properties commanding lower rental amounts.  Do not make the mistake of buying a property on emotion opposed to the numbers and later regret your decision.  It generally takes a lot of good decisions to build wealth, but one poor decision can destroy a lot of wealth.

So how can real estate investors best protect themselves from getting into an alligator property?  The Lucrative Investor team has several measures and approaches it uses when analzying prospective deals.  One of the pillars that we use is price to rent ratio.  In general, if a property is priced at $150,000, we ideally want the property to command at least $1,300 to $1,400 a month in rent.  Investors in an ideal world would have a 1 to 1 price to rent ratio, where their property would command $1,500 a month in rent or more.  This is one general figure that indicates a strong factor for positive monthly cash flow.

Monthly expenses will make or break your prospective deal.  We pull our monthly numbers by acting as a renter our self.  What are comparable rents on craigslist for the area?  What is the average quotes from 3 to 5 property management companies that are located locally (we act as a renter opposed to a prospective owner because these companies want your business and often tell you what you want to hear opposed to the reality).  Beyond what the rental rate is, what will it cost to insure the property?  This can also be done by calling 3 to 5 insurance companies with an address and obtaining a written quote.  The same principal applies to taxes.  Call the assors office and figure out the property trends and taxes for the few previous years.

Conducting the proper due diligence will take some time, but it is time well spent to prevent yourself from adding an alligator property.  Once you have all of your numbers accurately estimated, simply run the math and decide if you can live with these monthly numbers and build a nice buffer account for any unforeseen expenses.

Evaluating real estate is pretty simple in principal and fairly stable and safe if the correct procedures are taken to calculate the cash flow.  After the first few times it will become easy to you and allow you to assemble a strong real estate portfolio that meets your desired cash flow needs.

The reason that so many investors both large and small seek non-performing notes is because of the extremely attractive pricing.  People hear stories all the time about a property that was purchased for 40 cents on the dollar or lower, but they are extremely hard to find.  The other barrier to entry for the average investor with non-performing notes is the cash involved to successfully close on a non-performing note.  Banks typically will not carry any debt on a non-performing note, which means investors have to be well financed in order to successfully close a transaction.

Non-performing notes are priced so aggressively because the bank has a wart on their balance sheet that is not only performing, but has not yet gone through the foreclosure process to wash out the liens and other clouds on the title that keep the property from re-structuring towards a performing asset again.  Often, non-performing notes involve a lot of work and will have plenty of obstacles to over come once purchased, but the bank realizes this and prices the asset very aggressively to sell.

One of the most recent non-performing notes the lucrative investor team was involved with was two mobile home parks located in the MI.  We all know that MI is one of the worst affected states in America from the auto industry with high unemployment, but mobile home parks are priced at the level where it’s average family can afford, plus the owners are only responsible for collecting lot fees, not home upkeep and other headaches involved with lower priced rental properties.

The key to this deal were outstanding numbers.  The previous loan within the past few years on these two properties was $18,000,000.  The investor who purchased this asset had the contract with the bank for $3,650,000!  Even at the 46% occupancy, it was operating at a 23% cap rate bringing in $73,000 a month income with the new debt piece only at $36,000!  Now that is a cash cow.

On top of that, the investor had two as is offers at $4,500,000 and $5,200,000 that could not get the deal themselves because the first group had it locked up in contract.  Hedge funds and other institutional investors have banking relationships like these where they are able to secure and close on deals for great prices.  They take the time and effort to clear the title of any clouds and get the property operating again at an acceptable level where they are able to re-sell a clean performing asset and makes in some cases millions of dollars.

Non-performing notes are usually not a rosy picture when it comes to the task at hand of re-managing a property to get it back to an acceptable performing level, but hardly any other asset can offer such aggressive pricing and strong rewards for investors.  As the housing correction continues to take place for the next several years, more and more opportunities will be available for investors who are well positioned and willing to take on risk for big rewards.

If you would like more information on non-performing notes or opportunities available,call us at 312-265-8417.

However, when I went to look at reviews on the internet about the hotel, the reviews were all bad. Some were bad for no reason, some were bad because the reviewer actually had a bad experience.

Now, here’s the problem I am having with places that have been reviewed on the internet, this particulary pertains to places on trip, hotel, and food review sites: People are more likely to complain than report a satisfactory experience. I am guilty of it: a lot of times, I end up writing about when something makes me angry or I am unhappy with a situation.

You will always have a few people who are going to report on how the situation was regardless of whether or not the experience was good; but more often people will complain than brag. Honestly, the entire situation isn’t very fair to the establishments.

For example, the hotel I’m staying at has particularly bad reviews. I believe on Yelp, this hotel is rated a 2 out of 5, which is not very good at all. It all has to do with the fact that there isn’t wireless internet for free in the rooms (which is stated on the hotel’s website and is fairly common knowledge in my opinion), parking isn’t free (but there aren’t many places in the downtown area that hae free parking), and the bathrooms are small.

I believe that most places should be given a fair chance and that you can’t go by what all the reviews are.

When an employer has no sympathy for a potential candidate’s time it leads to frustration on the candidate’s part. Employers have been canceling interviews at the last minute with out a reason or an apology. Some are just wasting the candidate’s time by not paying attention during the interview and this is troubling because (and I should know) a candidate spends a lot of time preparing for an interview; this includes looking up the company and reading into the company’s philosophy and mission.

When an employer doesn’t share the company’s timeline to hire with the candidate it is also quite frustrating. A hiring manager always knows when they need someone. They know the time frame that they will be hiring in and not telling a candidate is annoying to all candidates.

Not sharing what kind of salary they pay is also really annoying, especially when they expect a candidate to give what they think they should be paid. There really isn’t any reason as to why a manger wouldn’t share this information. They really should give you some kind of range for you to expect to be paid and this would clear up the entire awkward situation that comes about when its time to talk money.

Finally, this one is the one that gets under my skin, when employers fail to notify a candidate that they are no longer up for consideration for the position. This is rude and extremely common. Many times a candidate sits by the phone (or in my case, shies away from a week vacation) to wait to hear from an employer. A simple email could do if the employer is no longer interested in the candidate.

Here’s one just from my own opinion book: If you’re an employer don’t tell a candidate to expect an interview and then don’t answer emails or the phone when the candidate calls. And give them an interview if you say you will.

The industries where jobs can be found include: Accounting, Information Technology, and even food service. This is all according to government data.

There are several surveys out now that are indicating that many companies won’t be hiring anytime soon, but a lot of the companies in the industries listed above will be looking for new recruits and are already out there actively seeking employees.

After shrinking for an entire year, four quarters in a row, the economy is expected to pick up a bit for the July through September quarter; this could lead employers to take away hiring freezes and start hiring people again. However, even with the new unemployment numbers out and showing a decrease in the total number of those who are unemployed, unemployment is expected to increase to 10% by the end of the year. Total job openings stayed steady through June according to the Labor Department.

Of course there are plenty of accounting jobs out there. The college I graduated from often boasts their 100% placement rate for accounting graduates. That number just seems crazy to me. After all, they just took a lot of the same classes I took to get through business school, yet most of them end up working in their field within weeks of getting their diplomas.

PowerPoint has been around for 25 years now, and while it was first geared toward people who had to present in business meetings and salespeople, the program has now become synonymous with anyone who has to give a presentation of any kind; no matter if you’re a salesperson or a 4th grader.

Over the past few years in college, I gave numerous presentations and PowerPoint presentations were not only expected, but required for all of them. However, after reading the expressions on people’s faces while giving presentations over the past few presentations I’ve discovered something: no one cares.

Perhaps it’s just presentations that people don’t want to go to, perhaps it’s the fact that PowerPoint slides often have too much information on a slide. Whatever the reason, I believe that it’s time for people to start coming up with more creative ways of giving presentations.

I think, especially for those in more creative fields, there should be requirements that they have to give presentations that are far more creative than a PowerPoint presentation; and no, I don’t mean passing out candy or throwing t-shirts at the audience. Marketing professionals are expected to be some of the most creative people in the business school and they’re giving the same presentations as accounting majors, something is wrong there.

Another problem I have with PowerPoint presentations is that the audience has become numb to the presentations. They have taught an entire generation how to stop paying attention. They have also taught that same generation how to rely so heavily on one program.

In the corporate world, people often turn something that can be said in two to five minutes into a 20 minute presentation because they feel as if they need to have the visual aid of a PowerPoint presentation. What a waste of time.

Oxford University Transportation System

107 Main Street

Oxford, MS 38655

For immediate release

Media contact: Jennifer Lott McClelland, Public Relations Intern

Tel: 901-555-9665(W); 901-555-9502(Cell)

Email: jjlott2@gmail.edu

Oxford-University Transit Commission introduces new manager

O.U.T. gets full-time manager to oversee daily activities

Oxford, Miss. -The Oxford University Transit Commission is introducing the new full-time manager, Ron Biggs to the team. Tim Lett will be stepping back from the current position as temporary manager to make way for Biggs.

Biggs, a recent hire for McDonald Transit, will be taking on the day to day responsibilities of the Oxford University Transit system. Part of Biggs’s responsibility will be overseeing a proposed expansion of the system if city and university budgeting allows.

“Mr. Biggs is very qualified and will be a wonderful addition to O.U.T.’s management. He has been with us for a little while now and we’re all looking forward to the next few months,” says committee member Carole Haney. “Ridership numbers have been improving every time a new report comes out and hopefully the months ahead will see the same trend.”

Oxford University Transit is the only public transportation system in Oxford. The shuttle service operates six days a week, Monday through Saturday and runs two routes between 7:10 a.m and 6:40 p.m. The red route runs from North Lamar to South Lamar and the blue route runs from the Wal-Mart Supercenter on Jackson Avenue to the Brittany Woods neighborhood.

Oxford University Transit is operated by McDonald Transit, a company headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas that serves 30 public agencies across the United States and boasts 50.3 million passenger trips annually.

For more information on the Oxford University Transit Commission, call (555) 555-1310.

-END-

It can be amusing when a corporation goes through an identity crisis. Usually a corporate name change stems from the board or owner’s desire to move the company in a new direction or to pretend that they know what the consumer wants. I suppose sometimes they actually do know what the consumer wants, but more often a name change on an established company makes customers go, “huh?” more than anything else.

I think that more often though, companies decide to change their corporate name to get out from under a dark cloud that they imposed only on themselves.

Here are some of the worst of the worst corporate name changes:

The Shack::Radio Shack. This was so bad that I had to write about it in a previous post. While I now know that the company isn’t completely changing its name to the Shack, I still am not quite sure what the company was thinking when they decided it would be a good idea to align their company with a rickety old building. When I think Hi Tech, I’m not thinking about shacks.

Xe :: Blackwater. Earlier this year Blackwater decided that it would change its name to Xe because the Blackwater name was tarnished thanks to a 2007 incident that led to the death of 17 unarmed Iraqi civilians. Thankfully, even after the name change the government did not renew the company’s contract.

Altria :: Philip Morris Co. When the company changed its name on the same exact day that the company was cleared of responsibility for a woman’s smoking related death in late January 2003, it obviously wanted to escape the bad PR it had been getting. However, all that ended up happening was a magnifying glass on the company. Every time customers are reminded about the name change, they are reminded that this is the same Philip Morris they knew and they only tried to change their name to escape responsibility.

SyFy :: SciFi. This one I can’t quite figure out. All the cable station did was change the spelling of the already abbreviated name.

You can read more about bad name changes as well as the worst offender, I’ll give you a hint, it has something to do about the company who changed the name of the Sears Tower, all at the SOURCE.

There are advertisements that are meant to warm your heart, to inform you, deceive you, and most of all get you to buy something you may not have otherwise bought. However, there are also shock advertisements that are meant to get people to talk.

Across the social sites this morning, everyone is talking about this new World Wildlife Foundation ad that compares the 9/11 attacks on the United States to the Tsunami in 2005. The consensus on the ad is that it was done in poor taste and it’s also a scam ad.

Scam ads have been around for awhile due to the fact that they are typically put on by advertisers and marketing firms that want to win awards. To win an award, the ad has to be published somewhere. In the case of the World Wildlife Foundation ad, it was published in a small Brazilian newspaper. It was also a print version of the ad seen above.

As long as awards for creativity are given out to ad agencies, ads like this one will be seen across the world and it will continue to shock the public when it leaks out to those who were really never supposed to see them.

Most of the states across the country have come to a conclusion: They have to raise taxes to help with the budget deficits.

The five states hit hardest by new taxes as written by SmartMoney are:

1) California – This state has a HUGE deficit. It has gotten so bad in California that they the state is starting to pay for things with IOUs. The state deficit estimate for 2010 is almost $25 billion with the state and local tax burden being 10.5%. Voters in the state voted against sales and income tax increases, and with unemployment there nearing 12% and the worst housing market in the country, anyone could understand their unwillingness to vote FOR higher taxes. One of the things on the table now for the state to start raising some extra tax money? Legalize marijuana…

2) New York – With a state deficit estimate for 2010 at $17.6 billion and the state and local tax burden of 11.7%, this state ranks number two in SmartMoney’s poll. The governor of New York, David Paterson has unsuccessfully tried to pass an 18% tax on soft drinks, however he was able to raise taxes on cigarettes and wine. New Yorkers have the second highest tax burden due to the income tax rate of 7.85% for those earning more than $200K a year.

3) Florida – Florida’s deficit estimate for 2010 is $6 billion and the state and local tax burden is 7.4%. In May, Florida passed next year’s budget and included a $1 per pack increase on cigarettes as well as new and higher fees to renew a driver’s license or register a vehicle. While Florida does have the third lowest tax burden in the nation, the state has been hit hard by decreasing home values and huge budget deficit as a result. The deficit could mean more taxes in the future.

4) Massachusetts – Massachusetts has a state deficit estimate for 2010 of $3 billion and a state and local tax burden of 9.5%. While right now, it is middle of the road when it comes to it’s tax burden ranking (23rd in the nation), it is getting ready for some hefty tax increases. When the budget was passed last week, it included new taxes including a 1.25% increase in the sales tax from 5% to 6.25%. Satellite television subscribers will also be tinged with a 5% tax on satellite services.

5) Nevada – With a deficit of $1.2 billion and a state and local tax burden of 6.6%, it doesn’t seem like Nevada is doing that badly, but it had the same major problem that California did: rapidly decreasing property values. It also had a history of low taxes, there was no personal income tax and it imposed some of the lowest taxes on businesses in the country. It once got the majority of its revenue from tourism, so it wouldn’t have to tax residents as heavily. In Nevada, the sales tax is going up along with hotel taxes. It also has the highest deficit to budget ratio of 32%.

Not every little thing is caught by spell check on Word. Sometimes it won’t catch a word that is spelled right but used in a way that will ensure you don’t get a job. Here are a few examples of some misspelled phrases that have ended up on resumes in the past:

* “Hope to hear from you, shorty.”
* “Have a keen eye for derail.”
* Dear Sir or Madman.”
* “I’m attacking my resume for you to review.”
* “I’m a rabid typist.”
* “My work ethics are impeachable.”
* “Nervous of steel.”
* “Following is a grief overview of my skills.”
* “GPA: 34.0″
* “Graphic designer seeking no-profit career.”
* EDUCATION: Attended collage courses.

The first thing I thought when I read those was “wow.” However, when you really start to think about it, it’s not hard to make some of those mistakes, especially when you’re a “rabid” typist. People often think that they don’t have enough time to read over something that they’ve typed either, even when it’s something as important as a resume.

I know I have made plenty of typing errors while I’ve been writing for this site; they happen quite frequently and I usually don’t change them until I have published them and everyone else has seen the mistake too.

Some things you can do to help avoid such an embarassing situation is to:

1. Of course, use spell check, but make sure you also do some of the other steps.

2. Read over every word you type to make sure you have made coherent sentences.

3. Print it and read it again.

4. Have someone else read it.

You can check out a list of really amusing resume bloopers here:

Source

Did you know that your credit card may be hiding some quite interesting and beneficial perks that you might be missing out on?

The following perks are from Citi:

- You have dedicated “concierge” staff to assist you. – There is a 24 hour personal concierge service that is around to make dinner reservations for you, get tickets to events, locate hard to find items, and even coordinate business arrangements worldwide. They can also assist you with gift selections and other requests that are said to “simplify your life.”

- You also have extra car rental insurance. Citi provides up to $50,000 in secondary coverage against collision or theft when you get a rental car and charge it on the card and decline the rental company’s insurance.

- There is also retail price protection. – This protects your stuff if it gets stolen or is accidentally broken up to $500 for the first 90 days of purchase when it’s put on the card.

- You have a price protection. If you purchase something with your card, except for online purchases and some excluded items, you have 60 days to find the same item for a lesser price you will get refunded up to $250 of the difference.

- You are not liable for unauthorized purchases online or offline.

- If an airline looses your luggage, you are eligible for up to $3,000 in lost luggage coverage for not only you, but also your dependents, when you charge your fare.

- You also have roadside assistance.

If you want to know what kind of perks your card has, just pick up the phone and give them a call!

For the firm believer that an investor should follow the trends to see real success in investing, it is important to know what the winners are doing right now. To understand that one needs to understand what they are looking at in the market. The first two things you must watch are real estate and unemployment. These are the absolute keys to a real recovery in the market and the economy. Until losing jobs is a thing of the past and until real estate prices stop going down, there will be pressure on our economy, end of story.

The current market is creating one of the greatest opportunities for building permanent real wealth if an investor can see the bargains. It is important to continually look for bargain-basement opportunities in the form of rock bottom prices. In addition to your own screening and research, it is important to pay attention to what those successful long-term investors are doing with their money.

Securities regulations make this very easy to do. Most finance managers are required to publicly release their holdings at the end of each quarter. By tracking portfolio changes and holdings in correlation with locations of investments, you effectively establish a makeshift research department composed of the best minds in the market. You should always do additional investigation of your own, but good research of what investors are already succeeding with is a good meeting of the minds, so to speak.

Just as an example, let’s look at Third Point LLC, the distressed and activist fund managed by Daniel Loeb. It is reported to have earned 16% or so annually without the use of much leverage, if any, just since its beginning in 1996. In his recent letter to shareholders, Loeb said he was less pessimistic about where the economy would be at the end of the quarter. The firm is letting go of what Loeb referred to as “doomsday positions” such as gold, the investments that will not stand as firm as they have once the economy moves forward. As we have established before, there is a relatively negative correlation between gold and Wall Street, simply because when Wall Street is doing poorly, gold has become the industry hiding place. When Wall Street bounces back, people bail from gold and ride the stock market back up, reducing the price of gold once again. (This explains why places like Cash4Gold are advertising the best ever prices of gold. Every active investor has bought some recently.) He said the fund is also finding long positions that offer what he called attractive opportunities.

Third Point established a new position in the home health and hospice company Amedisys in the quarter. As baby boomers age, this is going to be high-growth industry for years to come. Earnings and stock trades are up. Third Point also opened a position in Life Partners Holdings, a life insurance settlement business. Basically, it buys life insurance contracts at a discount from policyholders who are in need of funds. Life Partners then resells these contracts to retail and institutional investors. The company acts as an agent and receives a fee for its services. Earnings and stock trades are up for this company too, because death is truly recession-proof. It does appear that Third Point is leaning toward an aging population. In the last quarter it bought Wyeth, Schering-Plough and Pfizer with Pfizer coincidentally as one of the top investments right now.

When you contact your insurance company to file a claim there are a few things that you shouldn’t say if you want to make sure that your policy will cover the incident. Now, do not fraud the insurance company, just make sure what you’re telling them is the truth.

1. Never start a sentence with “I think” or any other term that indicates that you’re not sure as to why something happened. If you don’t know say “I don’t know.” Giving information that can be proven wrong later can really hurt your claim and can damage your credibility.

Particularly beware of speculating on blame or causation. For example, if you suggest that a water leak is due to a construction defect, you could give the insurer an out if that’s a policy exclusion.

2. Don’t use the “whiplash” excuse unless your doctor actually says you have it. This is one of the most fraudulent claims every year that insurance companies have to deal with. In some cases, according to Amy Danise from Insure.com, mentioning whiplash in your claim is likely to get it flagged for further investigation.

3. Don’t admit to a doctor’s test as being experimental when it isn’t. There is a difference between an actual experimental drug/procedure and one that is proven (and accepted by the FDA for use) but your doctor wants to try it out in your case. You may want to make sure that your doctor can prove that it will be covered by insurance before getting it done and fighting with the insurance company later.

4. The word “flood” triggers some kind of nervous, shaking, fear in insurers; so don’t use it. When it comes to homeowner’s insurance, floods aren’t covered. A flood is weather related too, not if your pipe bursts and you find yourself with a basement full of water.

5. Don’t act like the only thing you care about is the money. When an insurance company sees that you care more about getting a check rather than fixing your damaged property, they will likely put your claim on hold while they go and check further into it.

When it comes to insurance, it’s all about what the insurance company thinks. If they feel that you’re trying to make a fraudulent claim, for any reason, they can simply put the brakes on your claim altogether. It is rather frustrating to pick and choose your words when you talk to the insurance company, but it is important. Too many people, every single year, decide that having insurance is a good way to try to make a bit of money, when in reality that is not what insurance is for.

I can’t tell anyone what to do with their money, but if an insurance company sends a check out, then fix whatever is broken.

Not only in the United States is the cost of education increasing, but all over the world it is going on as well. In the United Kingdom, the amount of money that students have to borrow to go to college is increasing every year. It has increased so much that the average student debt was 3,100 pounds in 1994 and it skyrocketed to 14,700 pounds in 2004.

A study that was conducted in 2007 by Push.co.uk said that a student that finished college in 2008 would have an average debt of 21,500 pounds. Then female graduates are having a harder time paying off their debts there as well; it takes an average of 11 years to pay off for males but 16 years for females.

People everywhere are questioning whether or not it is worth the cost to go to college anymore. In the study in the United Kingdom, as many as 82% of the people who were questioned for the 2007/2008 year think that an education is worth the cost, however the figure was once 86%; showing that people are losing faith in higher education at a very slow rate.

Another issue that many students are facing as they are going into college is the issue that many families aren’t able to afford the higher education. I can speak from experience with this; my parents never saved any money for me to go to college. I had to pay for the whole thing. I worked and took out loans to help pay for school. Sometimes when students are faced with these decisions, they choose one or the other.

The debt that a student faces gets even worse when it comes time to pay back the loans that they took out throughout their time in college and they can’t find a job. This is a particularly current issue because of the high unemployment rate. In the United States the unemployment rate for those between the ages of 18 and 24 is higher than any other age group and it continues to grow with the overall unemployment rate. When someone is not able to find any work, especially work that will pay off the mountain of debt that a student accumulates, then it does become quite a daunting task to be able to pay the student loan bill every month.

If anyone were to ask me if I would or would not go through college all over again, I think I would. I enjoyed some of the time I spent there, and someday I know that going will eventually pay off. Right now, like many graduates, I am just a bit discouraged by the level of unemployment and my lack of job prospects at all. Perhaps something along the lines of graduate school is in my future somewhere. I’m not sure about that right now, especially with the mountain of debt I actually graduated with.

Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast four years ago this week. It just so happens that people are still getting caught today for trying to trick the government into giving them thousands of dollars for rescue money when they didn’t even have a residence on the coast.

Living close to Memphis, when the hurricane hit, many people fled here. There were a few people who were already living here that decided to cash in on some of the hardships that people who lost their homes were facing.

One woman, Jennifer Blaye from the Memphis area, was indited on federal charges for defrauding FEMA to the tune of $140,000. All the money was supposed to be for disaster relief and was meant to go to the people who actually lost every thing from the storm. However, she used false names and social security numbers to get the money. Of course, she has plead not guilty and so, she is not yet a felon, but we’ll see.

I believe that the majority of people try to do good things and not harm others, but there are always going to be a few who will cheat and scheme anyway that they can to make a few dollars. There are even people who will try to cheat the system and steal from other people if it means that they can get ahead. Those kinds of people are the few that makes the good people not want to donate to charities and hate the welfare and disability systems in our country.

I’ve been to both New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast in the past year and I have to say, they have both come a long way from where they were. The areas of New Orleans I saw were all pretty much the older parts of the town that stayed in tact, but on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, most of it is new and rebuilt. There isn’t anything on the coast that is old. Even the roads were new. It was just a bit eerie, even now.

A new study from the University of Essex in the United Kingdom has come out saying that nice guys really do finish last. The nicer the guy, the less he will earn per year versus his more aggressive counterparts.

On average, it is 1,500 pounds per year less than the more aggressive coworker.

The study was conducted over 3,000 men. They were divided into five different personality types then it ranked their salaries. The lull in pay even accounted for education, occupation, experience, as well as training.

I suppose that this could come from the fact that nice people tend to be more complacent where they are and how much they’re making. Nicer people are often less likely to ask for more when they feel underpaid. Instead, they’ll just complain about it to their friends or keep it to themselves or even make everything better by convincing themselves that everything is ok.

Sometimes being nice can be a bad thing if you’re in business, but being nice is one of the only ways to actually get your foot in the door at any place where you may not have any connections to.

Nice guys may finish last, but they often end up with the jobs.

Paper documents and marketing materials are important for small businesses, particularly for local, brick and mortar businesses. Often your customers will have no idea what your business is or what it has to offer, but if you have brochures to hand out, they can take the brochures home and see exactly what your company has to offer. If they are able to take the time to read over the offerings, the chances they will come back to your store increase.

Word of mouth is talked about in marketing as one of the best (or worst) ways to market your company (I say worst because there are negative ways to effect your business through word of mouth as well). If someone has something good to say about your company then their friends, coworkers, and acquaintances will be far more likely to visit your store or business. Now, imagine if that person had a brochure and could actually show their friends what your business had to offer and all the up sides of it. Then, you could potentially get well informed customers in your door just by word of mouth, for only the cost of a brochure or some other printed marketing materials. It’s also widely known that people who are sent to a business via word of mouth are more likely to actually purchase something than those who come in all on their own.

Brochures don’t have to be a huge deal to print either. There are so many sites that offer discount printing where you can design the brochure on your computer and they will ship out the finished product to your home or business for a low price.

It looks like one of the things that has always been seen as a “sure thing” could be coming back to bite investors. Life insurance companies have been offering policies to people for years and premiums often go up as the insured begins to age.

An investment scheme that has popped up in the last few years is when someone who is insured can no longer afford the premiums or is looking to “cash out” a life insurance policy that he or she has been paying on, someone will come along and buy it for a fraction of the payout and sell it off to investors who will pay the premiums until the original insured person dies.

There have been over a dozen life-settlement scams to come under investigation since 2008. Life settlements get capital by promising high returns. The business also gains the attention of other senior citizens who have empathy for the policy holders that have looked to cash out. And so, there have been a lot of companies ready to take advantage of those people.

Like when the market for securities became bloated and backed by homes created the subprime mortgage mess, the market for life settlements has created a surge in fake insurance policies called STOLI’s or stranger-originated life insurance. These STOLIs are illegal and begin with a life insurance agent who is also a life-settlement broker. The agent talks a senior citizen into taking out a big life insurance policy and wines and dines them. Then the agent agrees to pay the premiums and the ownership of the policy is transferred to investors.

Again, the problem with these STOLIs is that they are illegal and could endanger the policyholder from being able to collect any insurance in the future. Some scary statistics are that more than 50% of life settlements right now were on policies that were less than 4 years old. The reason for the increase and the large amount of settlements on policies that are less than 4 years old is the STOLIs. These policies equal out to huge losses for the insurance companies also and could potentially hurt the insurance companies to the point where they are unable to pay out real insurance claims.

It appears as though the government is taking note. Last month Senator Herb Kohl led up a special committee on the problems associated with life settlements. The committee meeting ended with the IRS and SEC being contacted to talk about gaps that are left in legislation in life settlement procedures. The SEC has agreed to look into the issues facing the industry. Due to this activity, it seems as though the market has cooled down a bit.

There are lots of new marketing schemes that are being used by advertisers to reach their customers. One of the newest, and in my opinion the most effective, could be text message messaging. You see it all the time on TV telling you to text “a word” to “a number” and you receive some kind of information. The most recent example I can think of is during episodes of Desperate Housewives you can text “Housewives” to a number and you will get a free little video from a mini series thing that Sprint is doing.

Of course, this marketing method can easily be applied to other aspects of advertising. Websites are beginning to pop up that offer the same marketing technique. The website 84444.com offers advertisers the ability to market through a text message service. One of the sites that it has working with it is a discount glasses retailer; if you text LENS to 84444 you will be directed to the glasses website. The company also offers other text message services such as text voting and contests.

I believe with this new type of marketing plenty of businesses, including our own, could benefit. For one thing, we could send out up to date, real time information to anyone who sent a text message to us. It would also give us the ability to add the subscriber to a database and we could easily tell where our customers were and give us a bit more demographic information. Of course, demographics are extremely valuable information when it comes to marketing. This all has to be within your (or our) company’s marketing budget, but it looks as though this is all very budget friendly for the type of information you are gathering (with a service like this you aren’t going after cold leads, these are all people who are already interested in your products or services).

In the United Kingdom, there are things called umbrella companies. What exactly is an umbrella company and why does anyone need them? Well, an umbrella company is a company that serves as an employer to people who are working as independent contractors that work under a temporary contract. This is necessary in the United Kingdom because of legislation that was passed in 2007. The IR35 legislation created tests that would determine one’s employment status and therefore, their tax benefits.

Umbrella companies offer payroll solutions for these types of employees. The way I understand it, the contracts are drawn up for the umbrella company and the “independent contractors” are then sent to work with the employer.

Umbrella payroll services are typically used when an umbrella company is used to handle an independent contractor. So in a sense you are employed but mostly have the costs associated with self employment such as health care and no paid vacation time.

I don’t think that I like the idea of an independent contractor being taken care of by an umbrella company. I believe, as a temporary worker myself, that the umbrella company just is another company that finds itself paying taxes and typically a independent worker must now pay something to this company or their contract is otherwise effected by the need for an umbrella company.

I find this situation similar to a union in which sometimes a person might be able to find a job on his own but instead is placed into a job that she/she might not be qualified for and every two weeks must give a percentage of their check to the union to help support it. However, unlike a union a umbrella company can usually terminate the employ more easily than a union based worker could be removed by the company that he is working for.

A year or so ago I couldn’t see the point in using Twitter. I often called it stupid and pointless, now I update my Twitter at least 5 times a week with pointless things about how my day went. I have downloaded programs just so I can update my Twitter and also installed plugins for my Firefox browser to update my Twitter, it’s not an obsession just yet, but I’m trying to get into it.

Twitter has actually become kind of useful to those who are trying to save some money also. Companies like Sears, Fiji Water, and Gold’s Gym are looking to be your friend on popular social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. They are even offering discounts and side deals for those who follow them on Twitter or add them as a friend on Facebook.

Last week, for example, Fiji Water used its Twitter feed to tell followers about a 40%-off sale on bottled water purchased through the brand’s web site. Subsequent updates dropped the discount by a few percentage points until the promotion expired. Meanwhile, The Melting Pot chain is offering a free chocolate fondue — worth $16 — to Facebook users who try the company’s free application to match up their friends. (For more current deals, see charts below.)

Fifty nine of the top 100 online retailers have accounts on the social networking websites.

“There’s definitely a business advantage to having a presence there,” says Tim Ross, principal of Kendall Ross, a Seattle-based retail branding firm. “It’s free, targeted advertising.”

If you want to add a company as a friend think about this before you do; you’re giving the company access to your profile so you need to make sure you’re aware of the privacy settings that the site offers so you can limit how much personal information the company can see.

You can track coupons that are posted on Twitter at CouponTweet.com and CheapTweet.com

I think that using Twitter as a marketing tool for a company right now is pretty valuable. I can definitely see where it comes in handy for some companies that might be hurting right now for business or who just want to get their name out. I like the idea of getting coupons and deals from being friends with companies on the social networking sites.

Some companies I don’t quite understand why they would have a Twitter and use it frequently is places like my bank, which updates its Twitter account with birth announcements and promotion announcements. It’s a regional bank and I don’t know one person who works there, so why would I want to follow them just to see who is getting a promotion or having a baby?

The stock market has been doing better as compared to the same time last year, which was just a month or two after the biggest financial disaster of the decade. However, there have been some bumps along the way. If you look at something that has unfolded over just the past two or three weeks. Dubai was going bankrupt and there looked to be no one to save the country. That is, until today when Abu Dhabi surprised the country with it’s own $10 billion bailout.

With the country accepting a payment like that, it is easy to see why the stock market has kind of shot up today. Investors of the oil rich nation have had their fears calmed regarding the longevity of the emirate.

That is not the only financial news that has helped out the markets today. Citigroup has also announced this morning that it would be paying back $20 billion of bailout money that it has received from the United States government. The move will help put Citi back in control of its own company and will help out the government, which just passed a huge spending bill.

Financial news over the past two weeks has really been overshadowed by the whole “Tiger Woods” debacle. His story has completely caused a media frenzy and no one has mentioned that the Dow Jones has been over 10,000 for a while now. While there is plenty of good financial news to report on, there aren’t many news organizations that are doing so right now (that is, unless you watch cable news which has to report on several different things to fill up the time).